Dawson Creek will install an orange crosswalk downtown to honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation at the end of September.
The city’s council voted to support councillor Kyle MacDonald’s proposal of installing the crosswalk and explanatory plaque at 10th Street and McKellar Avenue.
“The proposed location (is) near our library, central school, and Peace Park. I think it will help bring the conversation forward to our youth that we, as a community, recognize, and we acknowledge, and that we do not stand for ongoing racism,” he explained.
The city’s chief administrative officer said the Sept. 30 deadline was reasonable and doable on staff’s end if they got council’s approval.
Every member of council who spoke said they supported MacDonald’s intentions, but Mayor Darcy Dober said he could not support the project itself. He cited concerns about the physical manifestation of the crosswalk and suggested council consider weatherproof and low maintenance options, which would not be as easy to vandalise.
Dober suggested the city take direction from its northward neighbour, Fort St John, who put up metal art bike racks to honour Indigenous communities.
“I’m concerned a little bit about the reality of putting it on the ground and knowing the ongoing maintenance to upkeep it,” the mayor said.
Other councillors disagreed. Councillor Mike Sudnik described the crosswalk as a “small gesture in a huge picture.”
MacDonald told the mayor that council “can’t live in a world of ‘what ifs?’”
“I think this is a very simple easy way for us to make a bold statement and a statement that will educate. If it something that is vandalized, I think that just further proves the need for us to educate and repaint and say we, as a community, will not stand and allow that racism to prevail,” he said.
Every member of council, except the mayor, voted in support of the crosswalk and staff were instructed to start working on the new project ahead of its end of month deadline.
